This invention relates to but is not limited, to a suspension system for an operator compartment for a mine vehicle such as a shuttle car.
Mining vehicles for use in underground mines are commonly equipped with operator compartments consisting of a platform provided with an overhead shield or canopy to protect the operator and a seat for the operator. Since such vehicles must often work in very limited head room, the operator compartments are generally located to the side of the vehicle. Suitable controls for the machine are provided within reach of the operator. To make the most use of the head room available, limited ground clearance is provided below the operator platform. In many cases zero ground clearance is provided; that is, the operator platform is allowed by various arrangements to rest on the floor of the mine and is dragged along following the contour of the mine floor as the vehicle moves through the mine. Since the mine floor is likely to have undulations and sharp depressions as well as obstacles and debris of various kinds, it is necessary to provide means which will permit the operator compartment to smoothly and easily follow the changes in elevation of the mine floor as the operator platform slides over it. One known means is to pivot the operator platform at one end to the frame of the mine vehicle leaving the other end unattached and able to swing up and down about the pivoted end. Another is to have the operator compartment slidable on rails. Both have severe limitations. In the pivoted type, the pivoted end is fixed vertically and the compartment does not have the desired flexibility of movement. In the slidable type the slides and rails tend to bind and stick in the environment of a mine.